Characteristics

Typically, the electric guitar is performed with a large amount of reverb or audio feedback[2] while vocals, if present, are usually growled or screamed. Songs often lack beat or rhythm in the traditional sense and are typically very long. The experience of a drone metal performance has been compared by novelist John Wray in The New York Times to listening to an Indian raga in the middle of an earthquake.[2] Wray also states, "It's hard to imagine any music being heavier or, for that matter, very much slower."[2] A pioneer band of drone metal called Sunn O))) has indicated a kinship with sound sculpture.[2] Jan Tumlir indicates a "sustained infra-sound rumble of sub-bass—so-called brown noise".[3]